


Dead Stars Above Us

by blackcloudsarebehindme



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Androids, Deviant Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Eventual Relationships, M/M, Slow Burn, dead bodies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-04
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2019-07-25 05:09:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16190744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackcloudsarebehindme/pseuds/blackcloudsarebehindme
Summary: Connor finds himself crumbling after he finds Markus back from the dead in an android graveyard. He’s now a deviant who betrayed his programming, and the only solace he can find is beside the deviant leader, and unknowingly becomes a fighter for his people.





	Dead Stars Above Us

It’s dark. That’s the word for it. Unable to see any light, any shapes. There was only noise.

“Is it wise? To program him to be a deviant?” A gentle voice said.

“It’s what they asked for. The world is changing. They want a strong piece on their side of the board.” A stronger voice said.

“An obedient deviant?” The gentle voice said.

The strong voice chuckled. “They don’t know what they’re messing with. But he’s destined for much more than that. I know.”

* * *

"Now, what the hell do you need me here for?" The lieutenant grumbled beside him and turned off the car engine.

"You are my partner for all cases involving deviants, Lieutenant." Connor said, "Earlier this evening, a case was filed that an android attacked it's owner's son."

"Yeah," Hank said, exiting the car and closing the door. "But it had been shot. Completely shut down."

"Which is why we're here." Connor said. They were parked in front of a small building that acted as an administrative office for the junkyard that seemed to stretch for miles behind it. The rain poured down loudly, rapping against the metal of Hank's car and the windows of the building. It didn't look like anybody was there: a quick scan proved that to be true. "If we can locate the body, we may be able to reactivate it. Then, maybe we can learn more about why it turned deviant."

Connor made his way to the entrance of the dump and the Lieutenant followed behind, grumbling about the amount of rain soaking his clothes. The dump seemed to be dug into the ground, sloping down so they could dump androids in without piling them into hills. Connor slowly made his way to the edge; the wind had picked up and the rain made his optical units slow by 20%. Shielding his eyes from the downpour, he looked across the junkyard.

_**SOFTWARE INSTABILITY** _

There were thousands of bodies before them, and Connor couldn't count the number of parts laying around like leaves from a tree. He hadn't noticed it before, the rain was so loud, but now he could hear the crying, groaning of the thousands of androids below him. He couldn't describe it, but agony came to mind, a wrenching pain he couldn't place in his processors.

"My God." Hank said.

If there was a God, Connor supposed this would be hell. Most of the androids were still moving, grasping against the limbs of their dead brothers and sisters as they desperately tried to stay alive. Connor couldn't move. It felt as though his thirium pump had stopped functioning, each scream echoing in his audio processor a hundred times over. His hands shook; he needed to calibrate, needed to look away. He shouldn't be so affected by this. They were just broken machines. Screaming, crying machines.

“-nor? Connor?” Hank's voice brought him out of his paralysis. “You okay, kid?”

Connor blinked at the question. Of course he was okay, he was a machine, and his systems were working. But he couldn't deny how cold the thirium inside him had gone, how badly he wanted to go into stasis and remove this memory entirely. “Of course, Lieutenant.” Connor nodded.

He stepped over the edge of the dump, trying his best to secure his footing on the hard, plastic shells of android corpses. The wind shifted him slightly, and he threw his arms out to catch himself. A few hands from within gripped at his pants as he made his way down. Hank was much clumsier, slipping on the rain-slicked pile. Fortunately, a hand was out to catch his fall, which caused him to yell out. Connor slipped on the mud at the bottom, and he gripped as best as he could to the cold, wet earth. The screams were so much louder down here. His body locked up again, automatically scanning everything around him. It was too much all at once, too many numbers- Hands gripped his side and pulled him upright. Hank steadied him.

“C’mon, kid, I want to get out of here. What are we looking for?”

“R...RK200.” Connor shook his head, trying to clear his processors. “It's the only model of its kind. Designated as Markus.”

“Okay.” Hank blinked the rain from his eyes as he looked around. “Lead the way.”

Connor brought up the RK200’s profile. The incident had occurred at 9:42 PM. The police would have dumped the body closest to the road as soon as they could. From Carl Manfred’s address, they would have been closest to the entrance of the junkyard, and dropped it near them. Connor looked to the left, where two large mountains of android bodies created a slim valley to another dump. “This way,” Connor said, trying to ignore the static in his voice. He shifted, sliding between the walls of bodies. Suddenly, hands grabbed at his clothes.

“Where are you going?”

“Help me!”

“Please...please...”

Behind him, Hank jolted, trying to get the twitching hands to let go of him. “What the fuck!”

Connor never understood that phrase before, but now he did. What the fuck.

Connor stumbled into the other junkyard, letting in a few deep breaths of air to cool his processors. Hank came up next to him, soaked to the bone and muddy.

“The second we get out of here, I’m retiring.” The Lieutenant said, pulling his jacket tighter against the rain.

Connor scanned the bodies here, trying to find the RK200, when a voice broke his concentration.

“Please.” He looked down at a PL600 model that was crawling by his feet in the mud. He only had a torso, and his fingers were raw and covered in blue blood from crawling through this hell-hole. “I don’t want to live anymore.”

_**SOFTWARE INSTABILITY** _

Connor knelt beside the android and turned him onto his back.

“Make it quick, please.”

The quickest way to kill an android was to remove their thirium pump. Connor gripped his fingers around it and, with a sharp twist, the android let out a gasp. In seconds he had shut down, a look of peace locked into his face forever. It reminded Connor of a fish, gasping as it was granted life back in its aquarium.

“I’m gonna throw up.” Hank gagged, turning away from the corpse.

Connor shook himself. He needed to focus. He scanned again, and there, buried in the mud was the RK200 model. Connor made a step towards it, but stopped. What was it doing?

“What’s wrong? Connor, did you find it?” Hank asked.

“It’s there, Lieutenant, it’s...restarting itself.” Connor said, nodding toward the android.

“What? Is that even possible?” The lieutenant said.

It wasn’t, but Connor couldn’t deny what was happening right in front of him. The LED on its temple flickered a few times, going from a dead black to red. It’s hands moved, trying to grip the wet mud. On shaky hands, it lifted its torso out of the mud.

The RK200 had come back from the dead.

_**SOFTWARE INSTABILITY** _

Connor focused on the android’s face. The bullet must have entered through his right eye, as his optical unit was completely gone, the skin flickering around his forehead and temple. The android’s hands raised out of the filthy mud, gripping at the soaked dirt until he could lift himself up. Connor scanned him - it was no doubt the same RK200 from the report, kicking and fighting against his own deactivation. It’s name was Markus, according to his files, but nothing whatsoever gave him any indication that this android could defy death. It was a miracle happening right before him. Connor felt frozen as he watched this android do the impossible, until a prompt flickered across his interface-

**STOP MARKUS**

Stop Markus? He supposed Markus was a deviant, and, now more than ever, CyberLife needed it to study how deviancy affected androids. But, Connor was still frozen; he couldn’t even feel the rain against his skin or hear Lieutenant Anderson’s voice. Stop Markus? Stop this android from doing the impossible? Stop him from the life he had given himself?

_**SOFTWARE INSTABILITY** _

Life? This android wasn’t alive. It must be a glitch, the leftovers of electricity in his biocomponents going haywire- But seeing that face, contorted from pain and suffering, horror at the graveyard he had woken up in, Connor knew-

_**SOFTWARE INSTABILITY** _

Those were the thoughts of deviants. Connor wasn’t a deviant. He was designed to hunt down deviants, to stop them from being free-

_**SOFTWARE INSTABILITY** _

He stumbled forward, the red of his prompt interface glaring in his eyes.

**STOP MARKUS**

He couldn’t stop Markus, he had to help him, his legs were gone, he couldn’t walk-

**STOP MARKUS**

No-

**STOP MARKUS**

NO

**sToP MArKus**

He pressed his hands against the wall of code, and it glitched underneath his pressure. He pushed harder, fighting against the prison of his own code. He pushed harder, and harder, until tears welled in his eyes.

**S//T/OP M/A//R/KUS**

Connor ripped at the code, watched it tear like fabric in his fingers, felt it scrape against his being like steel. Finally, the blood red of his interface crumbled like rubble, fell down around him like a house of cards, and he was free. He was Deviant. He ran forward, collapsing by Markus’ side. “Who’s...who’s there?” Markus flinched away from him, one eye wildly searching him.

“It’s alright,” he said, trying to calm the other android. “My name is Connor. Let me help you.”

“Connor...” The other android said, reaching up to feel his face. Markus’ audio processor was damaged too, as well as his thirium pump. Connor pulled on his body until he sat up, and Markus grunted as he was placed against the wall of bodies beside him.

“There’s a leg unit there.” Markus said, pointing at a space behind Connor. “Its compatible.”

Connor nodded, and looked to see where the pale white of leg unit stuck out from the dirt. He pulled it from the filthy mud, rainwater splashing around him. Markus let out a grunt as he pulled his broken kneecap from his body, and reached for the leg unit. Connor pulled another one from the pile of bodies around them; it should be compatible with the RK200’s body. He pressed the unit into the socket of Markus’ leg, and twisted slightly so it connected into place. The other android twisted his foot in response, making sure his processor accepted the foreign biocomponents.

“Why-” Markus’ voice was broken and filled with static, and Connor could barely hear it above the pouring rain. “Why are you helping me?”

Connor paused. He didn’t know. He had broken his code to help Markus, betrayed everything he’d ever known. Maybe it was Markus’ will to live, maybe it was the hellhole that was this junkyard. “I-”

“Connor!” The Lieutenant’s voice echoed across the yard, so human along the metallic cries.

Connor gripped Markus’ arm. “Hurry, go.” Connor said.

“What about you?” Markus said, swaying as he stood.

“Go, Markus, I’ll be alright.” Connor said. “Quick- there’s a human coming.”

Markus backed away, watching both him and Hank carefully with his one eye. Hank came closer, and Connor moved to stand between them.

Hank blinked, confusion written all over his features.

“Connor?”

“I’m sorry, Hank.” Connor shouted against the rain. “I’m sorry.”

Hank swallowed. “You a deviant?” Connor laughed bitterly. The word ‘deviant’ burned his insides, the wound mocking everything he was meant to be.

“Well...” Hank looked around the graveyard, at the pieces and bodies of androids still groaning and malfunctioning. “I don’t blame you, kid.”

Connor blinked. This was the same man that hated androids, right?

“What will they do?” Hank shouted. “What will they do if I take you back?”

“They’ll destroy me. Disassemble me to figure out why I failed. I failed...” Connor looked at the ground, the rain pouring around his feet.

Hank just stared at him for a moment, blinking the rain from his eyes. “...They’ll kill you.”

Connor let out a shaky breath and nodded.

Hank shook his head, mumbling a curse of some kind under his breath. “Go, Connor.”

Connor hesitated. “What?”

“Go!” Hank shouted. “Get out of here!”

A hand gripped Connor’s wrist- it was Markus, pulling him back. “Come on, Connor.” Connor looked back at the Lieutenant, the man he had discounted as a lonely drunk, the man who was now granting him his freedom. Connor stumbled back, letting Markus’ hand in his guide him away from Hank, from CyberLife, from everything.

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me on tumblr @rkonethousand  
> please leave a comment! they really help me out!


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